Hi everyone,

Have a 2001 Monte SS Pace Car and just started having a massive problem with water infiltration. Car is recently retired (approx. 1 month now) and is parked on side of house without a cover yet (waiting for a custom one to ship as we speak.) I start it up once a week and drive it around a few blocks or so for errands just to give it some use. Went to get into it the other day and headliner was soaked and also the carpets on passenger side totally soaked (water pouring onto passenger seat from soaked sunvisor and then going to the floor by the looks of it.) Obviously something going on with the sunroof, so I opened it up to check the drains. Motor operates extremely slowly but I've had that problem for years now; it even got stuck in the open position for a few minutes once before. (Haven't really opened the sunroof since that problem started; maybe once in the last 4 years since I became so paranoid about it.) This time around it opened for me to check the drains at least though, and after hooking up my tire compressor to the little rubber drain tubes near the driver & passenger door hinges, no clogged material or anything came out and the water I subsequently poured in flows through just fine so I've concluded it's not the drains. Guessing it's the actual glass/seal itself then? Hoping for someone with more experience/expertise to weigh in.

If it is just the seal finally gave out, does the whole glass need to be replaced with it like as one whole piece? Or is it a separate gasket that can be removed and replaced? (Doesn't look separable to me but I honestly have no clue?) I closed it up again after cleaning the drains and tried pouring water on the outside of the glass to simulate rain. Not even sure if this is normal or not since I honestly never paid attention to this detail, but much of the water I poured just seeped right into the space where the glass seal meets the car roof itself. (Meaning it didn't bead up around it or anything.) My father is a mechanic but even he is unsure/skeptical if it should be a completely impenetrable seal? If so, then that is definitely not happening right now with mine and is 100% the issue. Thanks in advance for any info or advice on how to proceed with this!!

 

My first impulse is exactly what you mentioned, check all 4 sunroof drains. Even though you ran air through them, you may still want to pour water through them to see how fast they drain and observe water coming out the other end. Just because compressed air made it, you still have no guarantee that there isn't an obstruction causing a bottle neck.

I have ONE issue with my 2004 Monte. I was at a hotel with it, and the parking spot I was in, I was at an angle (I had back the car in so the rear end was a bit higher than the front due to the pitch of the ground). It rained really hard that night. I got to the car in the morning to some water issues (minor compared to your description) from the roof panel. My friend with a 2006 Cadillac STS-V had no issues and he had the same parking situation and was in the same storm. After I got home, after all checks I did, I have no true answer, but found no problem. My only guess, the rain came down in such a volume that over powered the drain capabilities of the front drains and the angle I was parked did not permit the back drains to be of much value.

 

Wow Yea it’s a shame these cars have this type of problem because I love having the sunroof during the summer but my wife and I agreed it’s like PTSD now; any vehicle we purchase from today on NO more sunroofs lol.

We did pour water down the drains after blowing them out and the water ran perfectly fine through them both before and after. That’s why I’m thinking maybe it’s just the seal itself now?

You mentioned “all 4 drains”; just want to check: where would the other 2 be exactly? From what we could tell there was one drain on each side at the top leading from the sunroof down to the front door hinges where the exit tubes are. Are there ones leading to say, the back of the car also? It was horribly frigid outside so we were working really fast and definitely could have overlooked them if that is the case. Thank you so much!!

 

A little tip that I used back in the 90's I had an Oldsmobile that the roof leaked sometimes So I bought some tinting film at the Walmart store and laid it on the sunroof so it covered about an 1 inch to 1.5 inches over the edge. Once I laid it down and used a squeegee like they do with wraps it laid tight and I didn't have to worry about it until some one decided to open it up again.

 

 

I'm the same way. We put way too much effort into our 99 GTP to keep it from leaking. Really struggled with keeping the tiny drains clear. As a result, we also struggled with mildew smell in the carpets as we never could get them 100% clean after a few healthy soaks. Vowed never to do it again.

Fast forward 10 years, have moved to a very dry climate and decide to give it a shot again on a Ford Edge as it had all of the other features we wanted and the giant sunroof was really visually impressive. Sure enough, the glass spontaneously shatters (a common issue with the original revision parts apparently) just before we sell the car years later forcing me to fork out $1000 for a replacement (with me doing the labor).

We're definitely done with them for good now...

 

So, if you did not check all 4 drains, then that is potentially your problem. Basically, it has drain openings on all 4 corners of the sunroof. The fronts are pretty easy, drains travel the A-Pillar and exist the door jam (kinda a crappy spot if you ask me, enough water flow in that location can damage fenders and rockers). The rear drains travel between the rear quarter glass and rear window. I never ended up searching for the other end, but looking at the shop manual pictures, looks like it exits somewhere in front of the rear wheels.

As for the PTSD with sunroofs, I can totally understand what you and Bumpin have explained. I admit, I have not had any real issues. I had two cars I had an aftermarket pop-up sunroof installed, all was fine with that. Then I have three others (two I still own) with factory sun roofs and no real issues, other than the Grand AM did have a clogged drain once. But, if I had the experiences mentioned here, I would think long and hard before I did that again! Granted, I wish cars still had T-Tops. I have an 84 Camaro with those. Granted, those too have their share of issues.

 

Thank you to everyone so far for the wealth of advice and assistance!! We did finally find and track the route of the back drains and cleared those out as well with compressed air machine and very hot water. All 4 drains definitely clear now as the water we pour in does not hesitate to exit. However, I’m still getting water dripping out from the homelink overhead buttons/console inside the car after every time it rains. I’m convinced if it’s not the drains now then it has to be the sunroof glass/seal itself?? We’ve even pressure tested the windshield to be safe/thorough and it’s completely fine.

Does anyone know if the seal/gasket around the sunroof glass is replaceable? Even an aftermarket one if not an OEM replacement? Or does it have to be found only attached to an original preexisting glass pulled off another Monte (junk yard?) I found a schematic online of the entire sunroof assembly but naturally almost all the parts are unavailable and I can’t find a part number for what looks like the seal (#4.) For some reason all these dealer parts websites skip over that part and a few others (like the tracks themselves) in the list, not even to list them as discontinued. Any additional help is greatly appreciated!!

 

Sad part is so much is discontinued for these cars. There is an Impala guy who is VERY helpful. Check this thread for his info:
https://montecarloforum.com/forum/pr...m-parts-28933/

Sometimes if he cannot find something, he *might* know an alternative (he helped me with some plastic fasteners years ago). Outside of that, I am not sure of anything off the top of my head.

 

Thanks for the recommendation I’ll shoot him an email and see what happens!


As an update: I peeled down as much of the front portion of the headliner as I could without actually detaching anything else. I peeked in with a flashlight and can actually see water dripping into the homelink unit from the sunroof motor which is located directly above it. Can’t seem to see if/where there is a main source of infiltration that’s causing the water to actually get to the motor itself, but the rest of the headliner is dry now except for that one spot. So my father is convinced it proves the drains are now clear and that the infiltration might just be from the seal around the sunroof glass itself. I’ve ordered one from a junkyard type seller that deals exclusively with sunroof glass and only sells ones from cars not in accidents and that are cleaned and pass their “10-point inspection.” Will install it and see if it helps and post updates once finished! Any other additional help/advice will be appreciated. Thanks again!!